Tag: weight loss

Unlike some people, I wasn’t in the “best shape of my life” coming out of high school. I wasn’t too into sports and didn’t work out at all. My nutrition wasn’t great but I was also benefiting from a youthful metabolism that nullified most of the poor eating habits I developed. Starting college, with a diet worse than before, I realized that my metabolism was no longer immune to my food choices; I had definitely put on some weight without really realizing it.

From a fitness perspective, I still wasn’t doing a lot and decided to start going to the university rec center. I played basketball and lifted weights here and there — inconsistent at best. Outside of the gym, I found water and snow skiing incredibly enjoyable. While the extra activity was great, I was still out of shape and was 165lbs (top left picture) at my heaviest weight in 2007.

I started realizing that I didn’t have a plan and didn’t have any idea what I was doing. I tried fixing it with just “eating better” but it was inconsistent and unsustainable (not eating breakfast, small lunch, gigantic dinner…continually fluctuating and not having the know how or answers). Knowing what I know now, I can’t believe I made that work for so long.

In the summer of 2010, I decided to try P90X. I was a little skeptical and knew that I would not be able to do a lot of the exercises out of the box – I couldn’t even do more than two real pull-ups. Two rounds later I found a lot of positives. I was able to do more pus-hups and pull-ups than I ever thought possible and I was enjoying working out. I went three more years only doing P90X in the summers and found it to be enjoyable. From a results standpoint I found that my weight stayed about the same after an initial drop 150-155lbs mostly because of my nutrition and lack of consistency in both nutrition and working out (once the school year resumed).

In the summer of 2013, I decided to commit more to the workouts and did a round of P90X and P90X2 (top middle picture) in a row. I dropped 5lbs and increased my weights in all of the strength training workouts. I felt good but decided to commit to better nutrition at the start of 2014. I tried to follow the P90X3 nutrition guide but didn’t have a lot of support. I certainly didn’t lose my progress but after 3 months, I knew I needed more help — just in time for me to find TD Nation. Three more months with proper macros and hitting my calorie amounts daily I finally got results I was proud of (bottom left picture). More importantly though, I felt connected to a group of people with the same goal who I could relate with, help, and collaborate with moving forward. With the momentum from TD Nation, I decided to make new goals. The goal of “just getting fit” transformed into seeing how far I could push myself. I realized the next step was to add muscle mass. I am currently back up to 150 lbs but feel much stronger after doing P90X hybrids for 6 months and almost 4 rounds of Body Beast.

Fitness has truly become an integral part of my life and I can’t imagine it any different. I stay locked in because I am involved with a group of people who make it fun, and because I enjoy helping other people reach their goals with the information I have come to use in my new way of life.